Archery has been employed by mankind for thousands of years for both sport and combat. Modernly, archery has evolved in recent decades to employ technically advanced bows and highly engineered arrows.
Modern arrows are made of elongated rods or tubes of stiff, low density material such as wood, fiberglass, aluminum, carbon fiber, or a composite of carbon fiber wrapped around aluminum tubing. Such materials yield a strong and substantially rigid projectile for the archer.
While arrows are designed to be very stiff, in practice, they still must retain the ability to flex or bend. Consequently, synthetically formed arrows, such as those made from carbon fiber and resin, have become ever more popular because they provide both stiffness and the ability to flex when fired from the bow.
Arrows modernly employ a shaft which is formed of a tube having an axial passage therethrough. This is because, for a given mass in flight, tubes have been found to be stiffer than solid rods. Additionally affecting aerodynamics is the diameter of the tube employed. Generally speaking, it has been shown that larger diameter tubes with thin walls are inherently stiffer. However, these larger diameter tubes are also mechanically weaker than narrow thick walled tubes, and the smaller the diameter of the shaft, the more aerodynamic the resulting arrow. Consequently, the material forming the tube itself can help solve the dilemma of which diameter to employ.
Because carbon fiber is inherently stiffer and lighter than aluminum, when employed in an arrow shaft, it allows the arrow shaft overall diameter to be thinner than arrows manufactured in earlier years and therefore more aerodynamic. Further, carbon fiber is lighter, yet has excellent stiffness and as a consequence, an arrow released from a bow which has a carbon fiber shaft will generally accelerate to a higher velocity than the larger cross-section heavier arrows of the past. As a consequence, the sport of archery has come to favor carbon fiber arrow shafts as a preferred construction for the arrows in an archer's quiver. Such carbon fiber or carbon fiber surrounding aluminum arrow shafts proved for a lightweight, stiff and durable arrow, when fired at the high velocities provided by modern bows.
One such carbon fiber designed arrow is the VICTORY ARMOUR PIERCING arrow which is widely employed. While well received in the archery community for the high velocity it achieves with concurrent accuracy, this arrow, like many recently engineered and formed of carbon fiber, suffers from breakage when the arrowhead and carbon fiber shaft impacts a target. This is especially true if fired from a bow capable of projecting the arrow at especially high velocity speeds.
The vast majority of archers have chosen to continue to employ their conventional target and hunting arrowheads whether engaged to larger diameter conventional arrow shafts or the more modern carbon fiber arrow shafts. Because the diameter of the carbon fiber shafts is narrower than previous conventional arrow shafts, the hollow axial conduit running through them is also narrowed. Conventional arrowheads, in use and currently sold, provide a threaded rear shaft for the arrowhead, which is designed to engage the threaded axial passage of arrow shafts having the larger diameter, and not the more modern carbon fiber arrow shafts. As a consequence, engagement tips have been provided by carbon fiber manufacturers which allow for the engagement of conventional arrow head threaded shafts to carbon fiber arrows. Such engagement tips, conventionally employ on a first end, a rearward facing collar sized for an adhesive engagement surrounding the exterior circumference of the carbon fiber arrow at its distal end. On the opposite end is a threaded aperture running into an axial conduit.
Carbon fiber arrow shafts employing this engagement tip however have shown a propensity, upon striking a target, to bend at the collar affixed to the leading end of the arrow. Because this collar is used to attach the metal point or tip of the arrowhead to the front of the arrow, and to allow changes in weight and type of arrowhead, the breaking of the collar and resulting damage to the arrow shaft destroys the functionality of the carbon fiber arrow.
Such conventional collar style tips are generally formed of metal, such as aluminum. On the end opposite the arrow shaft engaging collar, is the threaded axial passage to engage the threaded shaft of an arrowhead or tip leading from such a threaded shaft. Another problem that occurs frequently, but is just as vexing since it destroys the carbon fiber arrow functionality, is the propensity of the engaging shaft of the arrowhead, to bend or break at its enlargement with the collar mounted tip.
As noted, the current conventional mode for engaging the arrowhead engagement tip to the leading edge of carbon fiber arrows such as the VICTORY ARMOUR PIERCING arrow and similar conventional carbon fiber arrows, is to employ a metal collar to engage on and surround the exterior circumference of the carbon fiber arrow shaft. This collar is conventionally glued permanently upon the shaft or may be compressibly engaged about the outside circumference of the arrow's leading end.
The collar so glued, or wedged or compressed around the exterior surface of the leading edge of the shaft, is thus permanently engaged. Damage to the collar results in damage to the arrow shaft from shearing and bending because the force from a hard impact of the arrow is communicated to a very small exterior portion of the wall of the arrow shaft. Damage to the delicately sized and balanced carbon fiber shaft, renders the arrow unuseable. This is because archers conventionally cut their arrows to their personal length preference for drawing on their bow, and a sheared or broken shaft would need to be cut shorter for use. Further, once the collar breaks and/or shears or bends the end of the carbon fiber arrow, the weight of the arrow and balance is also compromised.
Furthermore, archers have chosen to employ arrow heads having standardized threaded shafts with standardized diameters for engaging to the leading edge of larger arrows or the new smaller cross-sectioned carbon fiber arrows, regardless of the arrow shaft diameter. As such it is undesirable for manufacturers to produce new and consequently smaller engagement tips with smaller axial threaded passages for arrowhead engagement as it would be at great cost to hundreds of thousands of archers who already own arrow tips having a standard diameter engaging threaded shaft.
Accordingly, there exists an unmet need for a device and method which enables archers to engage their standardized arrow heads upon narrowed cross sectioned carbon fiber arrows to take advantage of the high velocities and aerodynamics achievable using such carbon fiber arrow shafts, without the fear of the arrow being destroyed on impact. Such a device should be easily engageable to the leading end of existing configurations of carbon fiber arrow shafts. Further, such a device should provide such a strong mount of the arrow head to the leading end of a carbon fiber arrow shaft, so as to allow for the employment of even higher arrow velocities in the future, without fear of breaking the arrow shaft on impact. Still further, such a device should allow archers to adjust the balance and weight of the assembled arrow easily, and should enhance rather than impair the impartation of spin to the arrow leaving the bow to increase accuracy.
With respect to the above, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the device and method for engagement of arrow tips to carbon fiber and other synthetic arrow shafts, it is to be understood that the invention herein is not limited in its application as depicted or taught and to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components or steps set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The various apparatus and methods of the invention are capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways, all of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art, once they review this disclosure. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting in any fashion whatsoever.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other devices, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the herein disclosed carbon fiber arrow shaft engagement for arrow points and weights. It is important, therefore, that the objects and claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.